In 1600, Giordano Bruno, an Italian priest and mathematician, was burned at the stake in Campo dei Fiori in Rome after the Inquisition found him guilty of heresy, a charge that included his belief that there were infinitely many worlds like our own. Four centuries later, at a time when a popular television show is called The Big Bang Theory, science has infiltrated popular culture to such a degree that a scientist can forcefully argue that, indeed, infinitely many universes may exist and that we live in but one of the many distinct parts of what is now known as the “multiverse.” Brian Greene is no stranger to controversial science. His first book, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Elegant Universe (1999), was an eloquent exposition of what was then still an obscure theory in physics: string theory. Greene’s book helped make string theory a household phrase. In The Hidden Reality, while admitting that string theory has in the meantime come under attack from many physicists as a theory that may be extremely hard to prove experimentally, Greene forges forward to explain an equally controversial theory – or rather, set of theories – about the plurality of universes. Having done so well in his exposition of string theory , Greene apparently feels safe from being figuratively burned at the stake. But this is not to say that the theories he writes about are easy to believe, feel natural in any way, or have any significant experimental evidence to support them.
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